


Taking Chances

by DemonAngelSakina



Series: Love Songs For The Lost [3]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Drinking, Gen, LITERALLY, M/M, Platonic Female & Male Relationship, Platonic Life Partners, Relationship Discussions, not a songfic, slapping some sense into your idiot friends, vitriolic best friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-06-07 06:19:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15213038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonAngelSakina/pseuds/DemonAngelSakina
Summary: "So...do you love him, Jayden?""Khole, we are not discussing that.""Yes, we are because the subject is all that's on your damn mind."





	Taking Chances

**Author's Note:**

> Not a songfic! But these two are important players in this series and as main characters for the world as a whole.

"So..." The brunette woman started, shifting some where she sat on the roof--golden eyes narrowed thoughtfully at the platinum blond man sitting next to her, drinking from the bottle of whiskey that they were passing between them. She frowned some--trying to decide how she could word the questions she had so that she wouldn't become a casualty should her words rile the blond...before shaking her head and deciding to just go for it--tact had never been her strong suit, as her father had told her many times in the past...she was more the 'run in-blow shit up' type, rather than the 'slow infiltrate-gather information' type.

"Do you love him, Jayden?" the brunette said after a moment of thought--raking a tanned hand through her messy shoulder-length locks. The platinum blond, Jayden, almost choked on the warm alcohol--passing the bottle back to her as he tried to hide a cough behind a pale fist; he turned to level a death glare at her--eyes like lavender-blue ice under the silver-white moonlight.

"Khole, we are not discussing that."

Khole rolled her eyes, taking a swig from the bottle--ignoring that drop in tone in the man's voice; she wiped a hand over her mouth and set the bottle on the roof before leveling her own death glare on her long-time friend.

"Yes, we are because the subject is all that's on your damn mind." She said before jerking the bottle out of Jayden's reach, earning a low--almost dare she say, 'feral'--growl from the normally refined sorcerer. Jayden scowled at the warrior next to him before settling back to glare up at the night sky--trying to focus on the shining stars overhead. Khole sighed softly--her glare all-but disappearing when she saw a flicker of sadness cross the twenty-nine-year-old's pale face.

"Jayden, I want to try to help...and you know you can trust me...so tell me--as a friend."

Jayden looked back at the twenty-two-year old...then hunched over, resting his head in a hand--his elbow on his knees and several locks of his waist-length hair falling over his shoulder. Khole laid a hand gently to the man's shoulder--feeling the tenseness in the battle-hardened muscles beneath the black shirt. After a few minutes, Jayden glanced sidelong at her--he wished for the subject to drop all-together...but a small part of him preferred the talking option, and if he couldn't trust his blood-oath sworn sister, who could he trust?

"...It's not a matter of loving him, Khole--it goes beyond that. Attraction? That I am capable of. Lust? I have been guilty of such a thing many times, I will admit. But...love?" Jayden trailed off a moment before finally turning his head completely to look at the woman. "Yes...I believe that I do love him, but there are too many reasons why pursuit is the worst option that I could choose when it comes to him."

"What are the reasons, Jayden? Age? Gender? Social status or stigma?" Khole said quietly, leaning in abit. Jayden shook his head--raking his fingers through his hair as he pushed several locks back from his face.

"...I do not care about 'social status' or 'stigma'. And...gender has never been an issue for me in the past."

"So...age then? He's an adult like you--younger, yes...but both of you are adults, my friend." Khole frowned some in thought before Jayden's eyes narrowed into a glare; Khole tilted her head to one side slightly before continuing--actually being careful with her words now. "Nineteen is not terribly young--more than an adult by our world and enough of an adult in his own."

"...Five years." Jayden said after a moment, causing Khole to blink before the realization set in. She moved so that she was sitting closer to the man, her hands resting on her knees.

"Is that...how long you've known him?"

"Yes...and how long I believe that I have been in love with him." Jayden said--refusing to look at the woman. Khole frowned some in thought, her head bowed as her mind processed the new information.

"You've known him and, possibly, been in love with him for five years...and you never, um, 'acted' on it?" Khole said quietly--glancing over at the blond whose head was bowed, face hidden by several long locks of hair. Jayden frowned some before giving a short nod--five years...it felt so long, yet too short; he tilted his head back, looking up at the moon again as if the great, silver sphere held the answers to all of his problems.

"...Five years is a long time." Khole said gently, picking up the forgotten bottle of whiskey and taking a slow drink; she handed the bottle over to Jayden, trying to sort out what else she wanted to say. After a few minutes, the brunette looked at the blond. "...Is it...just the age difference--him being nineteen and you being...well, 'you'? I mean--well...physically there's only like, what, ten years between you two? Though...actuality is more than a thousand considering you being...well, as I said, 'you'--not that that's a bad thing though--"

"...I am a fallen prince--royalty only in lineage, but without even a trace of a kingdom...a prince of a realm that has outgrown its former monarchy in the aftermath of a war against a tyrant--a war that I helped to win." Jayden said with a frown, eyes narrowed as he interrupted the warrior woman's rambling. "...Beyond everything...I literally have nothing to offer to that lovely angel."

"Jayden...you have yourself. You have your own heart to offer--your love. That would be enough for anyone." Khole said as Jayden took a drink from the bottle--slightly taken back at how the conversation had shifted from the problem being about the pair's age difference to Jayden's own social status...or lack thereof. "He could give you his heart and you give him yours--an equal exchange."

"My heart is too damaged--too tattered and ragged...too undesirable." Jayden muttered before upending the bottle--finishing the contents. Khole's eyes narrowed some at Jayden's mutterings before she raised a hand and harshly smacked the back of his head the second the bottle was away from his lips.

"Enough of that! You're only making excuses now, my friend--no one's heart is too damaged to love...and Tsubasa is far from being the kind who would turn someone away for being "damaged"--hell, we are all damaged...fractured and broken...scarred and blood-stained, but not a damn one of us is beyond being loved by anyone." Khole said, her expression as deathly serious as it had always been on the battlefield. "Tsubasa puts no value on money, land, or even a family name--and most certainly not on one's status; he values only the person...and he values all people, especially you."

Jayden rubbed at the back of his head as the warrior spoke, but made no move to rise or even open his mouth to speak. Khole frowned before she stood up, smacking dust off of her pants and the tails of her leather longcoat before turning her golden glare back on the sorcerer still sitting on the roof.

"You must be the stupidest genius I've ever known, Jayden--do you honesty believe the excuses you're trying to spout off?" She said, arms coming to cross over her chest; a scowl formed on the sorcerer's face.

"Khole." That was the swordswoman's warning...but Khole continued on despite the growing tension around them.

"We have known eachother ever since the beginning of the war--all be it, I spent what? A millennium in a sleeping death coma 'cause my soul was stolen...but I digress." She raised a hand, raking tanned fingers through her shaggy hair to get the messy bangs out of her line of sight. "How could the courageous warrior I knew back then have honestly changed so much that he would choose the coward's way out--bow his head and practically hide on his knees to keep from confronting something that isn't even a threat? I have never seen you beat yourself up this way--even at your most depressed at the start of the war when you were just regaining your damned memory--"

"--I am not beating myself up, Khole." Jayden finally said as he stood up--the six-foot tall male seemingly towering over the five-foot-eight female...not that she was bothered of course; she was confident that, should it come to it, she could take the fallen prince in a fight...provided he didn't use his magick--if he did that...yeah, better to not think about. Jayden's lavender-blue eyes were narrowed in a razor-sharp glare. "I am not making excuses--I am simply being realistic."

"And I am still calling dragonshit." Khole said, poking an index finger to the center of the sorcerer's broad chest to emphasize her point. "You are not being 'realistic'; you're making excuses--give me one perfect reason why Tsubasa would not want you; I bet you don't even have one reason that makes sense to anyone who isn't you in this situation."

Jayden grabbed Khole's wrist--his pale hand closing in a vice-like grip on the warrior's wrist as he forced her to stop poking him in the chest; neither of the two were willing to budge or back down.

"I may be a prince by blood, but I have no kingdom. I have no name of glory to offer to only add to Tsubasa's own perfection. I have no money beyond what little I can scrape together--"

"Material things, Jayden!! Tsubasa has made it damned clear over the years that he does NOT care about material things that are so damned fleeting!!" Khole snapped in anger, glaring up at the platinum blond--seemingly stunning him momentarily with her outburst. The warrior saw the break in the sorcerer's defenses...and ran for it.

"So you have royal blood and nothing to show for it but a, as you once called it, 'soiled blood-name'--you threw that name away years ago and have never even tried to reclaim it, even after your memory of your past was restored! What's in a name, Jayden?! 'Words have power', right? You lost what little power that name held, then threw it aside and buried it even after you had the chance to reclaim it, so do not try to use something so stupid!" Khole took a heavy breath--not to calm herself, but to ensure she would have enough air in her lungs should she need to keep trying to force her way through Jayden's near-infamous stubborness; she leveled her gaze on the sorcerer. "Money is a fleeting thing. Even now, no one has much of any--it's not an important thing to anyone." She said coolly--her muscles tensing as if preparing for battle.

"I am battered, scarred--" Jayden started, eyes narrowed in cold fury as his own muscles tensed in response to the growing violent tension in the air.

"And you still turn his head every damned time he sees you!!" Khole stated, her eyes practically alight with golden fire--rivaling the sorcerer's own ice-cold gaze. "We are all scarred--physical and mental...some worse than others."

"I am a dark sorcerer--"

"And no one gives an ogre's ass!! What else you got?!"

Jayden scowled--his pulse racing from the verbal war of wills between himself and the warrior before him--Khole's own expression mirroring the sorcerer's. Jayden gritted his teeth--a visible crack in his armor that spurred on Khole's assault.

"What are you going to try to say next, Jayden?! What other excuses do you have--what other lies have you been telling yourself?! You say you don't care that he's a male...only his age--fuck, he's an adult now and it's like you're trying to see him as he was when you met him five years ago!" Khole took a breath, preparing to continue yelling...only to stop cold when she saw the raw, vulnerable expression flicker across the fallen prince's facade. She blinked then stepped back some, giving both of them some now-greatly needed space to calm down. Jayden glared off to the side--his expression having gone stone-cold as if it were carved from the finest marble.

"Is...that it? The...core reason? You..can't see him as he is now--how he's grown up? You can only see him as he once was?" Khole said after a minute, her voice considerably quieter; Jayden only gave a short nod, his fists clenched tight at his sides--he couldn't sort it out himself...why he still saw an innocent, fourteen-year-old child who'd just gained immense power and been thrown into a deadly war...when that child had grown up into a more-than-capable, but still kind-hearted nineteen-year-old warrior and leader...and even more beautiful as the years had passed.

Jayden raised a hand, raking his fingers through his long hair as he tried to keep his controlled grip on his magick...only to start in surprise when he felt Khole's arms wrap around his middle in a hug; Jayden looked down at the warrior before gripping his arms around her as she began whispering comforting words to the sorcerer--apologizing for going into 'take no prisoners' mode, as they had mutually nicknamed it so very long ago.

"Jayden...my friend...my sworn brother. Go to him and confess--lay your heart on the line." Khole whispered--rubbing a hand over the sorcerer's back when she felt him tense again at her words. "The worst that he can do is say 'no'."

"The worst that he could do is hate me and/or kill me." Jayden muttered, seeing so many ways such a confession could go horrifically wrong; Khole merely rolled her eyes at the sorcerer's muttering.

"Tsubasa? Hate? I doubt he even has the heart to hate anyone--and he's the only one who fought the war and didn't kill, so I seriously doubt that he would make you his first kill." Khole said before releasing her embrace--her and Jayden mutually stepping away from one another. "Brother...trust in your heart--however battered and scarred...however ragged and bleeding...however damaged and tattered...your heart will not steer you wrong. It never has before and I highly doubt that it would start now."

"Do you...believe that I could even have a chance?" Jayden said, looking at the woman-warrior who simply gave him a devilish grin in return.

"Everyone has a chance...they just need to be bold enough to take it. After all, my father always said that "fortune favors the bold"." Khole said, reaching up and pushing several locks of the elder's platinum blond mane back over his shoulder. Jayden nodded--not sure if the new confidence and determination that he felt was from the brunette's words and confidence...or just the equivalent of two bottles of whiskey that he had consumed while sitting with her earlier.

"Maybe I will take my chance...provided, sister, that you go take yours--I highly doubt that I am the only who has noticed how you have looked at Seth all of these years."

The brunette warrior blinked--gold eyes going wide for a minute before she laughed and patted the sorcerer's broad shoulder--relieved to notice that most of the tension was gone...at least for now.

"Well, in that case, perhaps we should both go and take our respective shots...and provide full, detailed reports at a later date." She said--the devilish smirk had returned full force...before melting into an almost gentle, loving expression. "Go after your angel, brother--after everything that's happen over the last plus-thousand years, you deserve a chance at being happy."

Jayden frowned some before giving a small nod---perhaps his decisions were being influenced more by the whiskey, but the warrior's words made perfect sense; he laid an arm over the woman's shoulders--giving her a slight squeeze in a one-armed hug.

"Fair enough...but preferably tomorrow after I've had the chance to sober up some--I doubt Tsubasa will even speak to me if I approach him in any degree of drunkenness."

"I'll hold you to that." Khole said--following as Jayden moved towards the roof's edge. "On a completely unrelated note--one day, I want to see proof of you being drunk...like, running around naked or taking stupid dares or...hell, making out with Seth--"

"I will never make-out with Seth." Jayden said with a roll of his eyes as he leapt down from the roof, landing in a crouch before rising and walking off; Khole just grinned from the rooftop, watching as the blond walked off into the night.

"I know...just go be happy." Khole whispered quietly to the night; she looked up over her shoulder at the moon, her devilish grin disappearing as concern overtook her. "Oh goddess, I pray that you will watch over both Jayden and Tsubasa...and give them what they both have longed for with eachother; if anyone deserves to be happy...it is those two."

***FIN***


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